By Ian Browne
SportsLine Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- There are certain perks that come with coaching a team to the NBA Finals. A vote of confidence from your boss -- not to mention a guarantee that you will be back next year -- usually tops that list.

Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, the diminutive basketball lifer with the constant bags under his eyes, doesn't have any of that.

This is the case even after his Knicks became the first No. 8 seed to advance to the NBA Finals by finishing off the Indiana Pacers 90-82 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Friday night.

The saga is well-documented by now. Dave Checketts, the CEO of Madison Square Garden and acting GM of the Knicks, held a secret meeting with Phil Jackson in April when the Knicks were teetering along at 21-21 and threatening not to make the playoffs.

And it made sense at the time, given the sad plight of the team.

BUT WHAT MAKES NO SENSE IS Checketts' refusal to put an end to this whole charade. He had his chance Friday night. Decked out in an Eastern Conference championship hat, the bottom-line business man was mobbed by reporters.

Typically, he echoed the same tone he has echoed for weeks, even as his team accomplished a feat that perhaps even he couldn't imagine.

"I think, if you want me to make a definitive statement, it's not about that," Checketts said. "It is about the fact that we're working very well together. We're communicating. We both agree, we're going to sit down after the season."

This, even though Checketts' favorite Zen rancher seems all but signed, sealed and delivered to the Lakers.

It isn't even about Jackson anymore. It's about Checketts' ego. His mission is to show just who is boss. At this rate, why would Van Gundy even want to come back and work for this man?

Well, money is now talking. With the trip to the Finals, Van Gundy is now guaranteed an additional year on his contract -- he had just one left -- at $3.5 million.

But while Checketts is all about ego and results, Van Gundy is all about coaching basketball. The rest of this is foreign to him. Especially the money.

If Van Gundy comes back, it will be because he wants to. Not because of the loot.

How many other NBA coaches drive a Honda Civic?

So with the usually intense coach in a jovial mood -- at least by his standards -- during his postgame address, he was dealt a question right out of left field.

Question: Coach, do you feel like you just won Lotto?

THE LOOK OF DISGUST ON THE COACH'S face showed how funny he thought that question was.

"No," Van Gundy snapped back. "I won't even dignify that. Next."

A winning lottery ticket is luck. This Knicks' joyride is a lot more about perseverance than any kind of bounces they have had along the way.

This Knicks team was the worst kind of mess earlier in the season. Not only weren't they playing well together, they didn't like playing together.

There were two camps. The Van Gundy camp, which featured proud -- albeit gimpy -- center Patrick Ewing, forward Larry Johnson and sharp-shooting Allan Houston. And the anti-Van Gundy group, led by Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby.

Sprewell and Camby were brought in by since-fired GM Ernie Grunfeld. While there was no disputing the long-lost dynamic of athleticism Spree and Camby brought with them, some of Van Gundy's favorite guys went the other way in those trades. Charles Oakley and John Starks most prominent among them.

Loyalty is one of Van Gundy's best traits. But for a while, he let that loyalty get the best of him.

AS MUCH AS HE LOVED Starks and Oakley, the Knicks clearly had a bigger upside with Sprewell's scoring and ferocity and Camby's size and unique talent.

For a while though, Van Gundy ignored what he had and played his old plodding style; the grind-it-out basketball he learned first-hand from mentor Pat Riley. It isn't unfair to say Van Gundy was doing an unsatisfactory job coaching this team most of the regular season. Just as it isn't unfair to say the Knicks were playing well below their talent level.

But give the Knicks credit for snapping out of their funk and playing big when it counted most. And give Van Gundy credit for adapting his style -- and losing some stubbornness -- for the good of his team.

If Jeff Van Gundy returns to coach the Knicks next year, it will be because he wants to, not because of the money. (AP)

It is obvious now the Knicks will go as far as Camby and Sprewell will take them. Ewing is finished for the season with a strained Achilles'. L.J.'s status is murky at best after spraining his MCL in the clincher against Indiana.

Besides, Camby and Sprewell -- at the forefront of the new run-and-gun Knicks -- have been the difference for weeks now. Even when Ewing was playing.

Van Gundy has come to accept this. If only because he puts winning above all else. Something else he learned from Riley.

"The biggest factor to advancing is that we've really become a team. Latrell and Marcus had a huge impact in that," Van Gundy said. "I'm really happy for Marcus because of his perseverance through the year. He never pointed fingers of blame and just kept working and played so great. Obviously Latrell has gone through a lot in his life the last year and a half. Those two guys, as well as, you know, the guys that have been here.

"It's all about results in this business. When you get great results, I think everybody shares in it equally."

Van Gundy -- and his team -- already have come through with enough results, even if they don't beat the heavily favored Spurs in the Finals.

Now it's time for Checketts to hold up to his end of the bargain.